A blog by Timothy J. Hammons

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Prayers for Todd Pruitt, Laments for the PCA

Todd Pruitt needs to be commended. He also needs our prayers. Pruitt took a bold stand and came out last week, calling on gubernatorial candidate Mark White to repent of his position on abortion and a woman’s right to murder her unborn child. White is a Democrat running for governor in the state of Texas, and I don’t believe he has a chance of winning. So why did Pruitt call out this Democrat? Is it not the standard for the party-of-death candidates to advocate for the death of the unborn? It is. What makes this case unusual, but not as unusual as we think, is that White is also a ruling elder at a PCA church in Houston.

We need to pray for Pruitt because what he did in calling out a fellow elder, Pruitt is a teaching elder in the PCA, took courage. He is already being attacked by members of his own denomination for being…you guessed it, “schismatic and divisive, accused of meddling, and derided for an ‘unchristian attitude.'” These accusations against Pruitt come from the progressive wing of the PCA and really give us a glimpse of just how divided the PCA actually is. A study came out from Pew Research showing that 54% of those in the PCA support abortion in most or all cases. If 54% of the members of the denomination feel that way, I would expect that the percentage among progressives to be much greater.

But back to the division in the PCA. Progressives love to make claims of how unified they are, just like their mother denomination did when 300 churches left her back in the 1970s to start the PCA. Sadly, the PCA only took about 45 years to return to the point that brought about the establishment of the PCA in the first place.

The deeper problem in the PCA is that progressive don’t really hold to the Westminster Confession of Faith. In other words, they are not “confessional.” They take vows before God and their presbyteries to uphold the WCF, and the Book of Church Order, which make up the constitution of the PCA, but don’t really read it, understand it or hold to it. And they certainly do not take their vows seriously, unless of course, they can use those vows against someone who is confessional, which is what Pruitt is.

This is why Pruitt needs our prayers. The progressives of his denomination will be more concerned about shutting Pruitt up than they will about the fact that a ruling elder is openly advocating the murdering of the unborn. In fact, their biggest complain isn’t that Pruitt did so publicly, but that he did it at all, showing that the facade of unity for what it truly is, a facade.

The more progressives become involved in the running of presbyteries, the more confessionalist either get real quiet or just stay home all together. There is only so much blather a confessionalist can take about unity, when he knows the falsehood of the claim.

The talk of unity is usually a sign of disunity and is always used to quiet the more conservative wing of any denomination. It is also the primary doctrine of the progressive since so much of what they value is freedom from the constraints of things like the WCF and the BCO. Remember, a constitution is an agreement among members on how they will treat one another and what they all agree is essential for the faith. Yet the progressives disdain the BCO, and disregard the WCF. One teaching elder recently stated that the BCO was nothing more than a “necessary evil.” In other words, he was revealing his view of the LAW and the denominations standards. He thought that those elements put into place on how the denomination would govern itself to be evil. He failed to see that the standards are necessary in order to keep members of the denomination from treating each other in an evil way.

Progressives will do their best to run Pruitt out of the denomination. This is why he needs our prayers. He is in a denomination that is quite comfortable looking the other way when it comes to heinous sin like abortion. After all, if slightly more than half of the denomination supports the murder of the unborn, they haven’t been very clear on what sin actually is. And if half the ministers get upset at Pruitt for pointing out sin, then isn’t the denomination itself in sad shape? It is. It needs to be lamented and mourned over since every pastor in the denomination should have lined up to condemn White’s position and alignment with such a wicked political party. But alas they are divided.

One final thought: I’m not by any means branding all the pastors in the PCA as failing in their duty. There are plenty of godly men who, upon hearing of White and his stance, did condemn the actions. It just seems like the progressives, who are looking to go along to get along, rule the day.